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The Tech She Can Charter

6th March 2019

We, along with 93 other UK companies, have signed the Tech She Can Charter – a commitment to work collectively to increase the number of women in the UK technology sector. Aiming to tackle the root cause of the problem and challenge gender stereotypes, the charter is about actively inspiring and educating young girls to get into tech careers as well as sharing our best practice with other organisations.

PWC completed a survey across 200 schools which found only 27% of girls would consider a career in tech compared to 62% of boys and only 3% said that a tech role would be their first choice. This reflects the underrepresentation of women in the industry, with only 17% of tech roles filled by women within the UK (Women in Tech, 2019).

The Tech industry makes up an important part of the British economy and we believe that having a more gender balanced workforce is imperative in order for it to become more robust, more competitive and more innovative. An increasing number of studies have shown the benefits of more gender diversity which include a substantial rise in profits and increased productivity (Hive, 2018).

At MBDA, we recognise that diversity, equality and inclusion strengthen our business and we are proud to support the Tech She Can Charter. Our Early Careers Team have been working hard to inspire more girls into the tech industry, visiting schools in our local communities, attending nationwide engagement events, creating tech-based competitions such as our annual Robot Rumble competition and holding specific event days for female students aimed at breaking through outdated stereotypes.

After attending the Tech She Can first Anniversary conference, our representative, Claire returned enthused by the impact we can and have made on helping girls to understand that a career in tech is a promising future.

“There was encouraging evidence of how Tech She Can school visits can dramatically change young people’s perceptions of technical industries reinforcing our pledge to work together to generate a lasting increase in the number of females pursuing tech careers. This was particularly inspiring as I am involved in ‘Primary Engineer’ school visits.

Taking steps to help change the future really must be focused on educating young people, not only young girls, at a societal level to improve everyone’s perception of what technical industries look like.”

MBDA has seen a positive increase in female applicants with our tech-related graduate and apprentice programmes but we want to see a day when there is gender parity within the industry and will continue to be a part of initiatives like Tech She Can in order to change the ratio. You can find out more about the Charter here

MAKEuk National Manufacturing Conference

14th March 2019

Last month some of our apprentices and graduates were invited to support the MAKEuk (formerly EEF) National Manufacturing Conference at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London.